the Holiday Recap

Ahhh it’s back to the daily grind. After finally having almost 2 weeks off for the holidays I feel renewed and fresh…but somehow sitting at my desk and staring at the computer I know this feeling won’t last long. So here is my recap of how I spent my holiday break. (warning this is a long post…not Jarod long, but close)

I promised myself that I wouldn’t do much work over the break and focus on relaxing and having fun. My Christmas was one of the best ever. I spent Christmas eve day and early evening in San Diego with D’s family and after an amazing dinner and drinks we headed over to my mom’s house for even more food and unwrapping of presents. Somehow my mom every year still gets me socks and underwear. Christmas day is when the real fun happened. D and I sat by my tree and opened presents…and I was surprised (somewhat) with what I got: Wii fit and slip cover, a Tomlinson jersey, and a ticket to the Chargers vs. the Donkeys (Broncos)! I was super excited as this was my first (yes first) time to attend a NFL game and this was the decisive game for both teams to make the Playoffs. It was also time to get redemption against the team that was handed a win by a blind referee earlier in the season.

“D” does the Warrior pose

Going in sequential order…Most of Christmas was spent playing Wii Fit (much needed after all the holiday eating I’ve done) and then heading to my brother’s place to hang out with the rest of the family and watch the Lakers beat Boston! Like I said the best Christmas ever!

Lakers ended the Celtics 19-game win streak and beat them so bad that they lost the next day too…

The day after Christmas everyone got together and we went out to iLounge with DJ Reflex. Possibly the most fun I’ve had at that place.

Reflex spins for Kanye so I figured it appropriate to throw-up the “ROC”.

Saturday night was spent watching the UFC fight with some friends…Blog Re-cap

On Sunday we headed out to San Diego for the game. I booked a room at the Hyatt in Downtown so we didn’t have to make the long journey back home after the night game and so I could get completely drunk along with all the other fans.

View from the hotel…we could see the parade that went on the next day from the window too.

After figuring out the trolley system to get to the stadium. I find out that the seats were pretty damn good. Field Level near the 20 yard line.

It was a packed Qualcomm Stadium

Told you these were good seats

Ahh yeah…

LT broke a record or two that evening and scored 3 TD’s.

After destroying the Donkey’s the Chargers headed into the Playoffs as the AFC West Champs! (spoiler we then went on to beat the Colts last Sunday in overtime!)

The next afternoon was spent in Downtown SD just enjoying the clear weather and shopping around. For dinner I took D and her mom out to one of my favorite restaurants there. The place is called “Candelas” and it’s Mexican Seafood. So good. If you go I highly recommend the 4-cheese soup and the Chilean Sea Bass.

Close to the restaurant we walked by the most modern dry cleaners I have ever seen.

Skipping ahead a few days it was time to celebrate the New Year and what better way to do it than with close friends at our local club Sutra. Sutra has begun their re-model and opened an entirely new area for the evening. Lots of drinking, dancing, and more drinking! The only way to start the New Year.

Gotta love the go-gos

My New Year’s Kiss

I have the funniest video of this drunk guy afterhours being an idiot, but I can not show it as I made a promise not to. If he does manage to piss the right person off again and I get allowed to show it (and he will) I will be sure to post it up for all to see. Teaser: I’ve never seen a grown man cry like that.

For the New Year one of my goals has been to experience life and everything to the fullest. Rather than always drinking and partying (which will still happen) I will manage to also find some culture and experience new things. So in keeping up with my resolution D and I headed out to the Huntington Garden in Pasadena. This place is pretty amazing and despite the cold weather the scenery is just beautiful. Plus with all the walking it was great exercise.

So peaceful and relaxing

Never having traveled to Japan or China it was nice to check out the themed gardens.

The bamboo forest

Dinner in Downtown Pasadena was at a Tapas bar called Bar Celona. Great food and atmosphere and really good happy hour!

With the quality of snow here in Southern California lately I’ve tried to go as much as possible. Snowboarding gets expensive, but so worth it. So to end the holidays we hit up Bear Mountain for some snowboarding action.

Let’s end this long ass blog with an advisory. Don’t get caught in the snow un-prepared, or drive like a jackass, or try to make your sedan a rally car.

Happy New Year everyone!

Scion’s in Super Street!

Mark’s tC and my tC is featured in the latest issue of Super Street in the SEMA coverage. Check it out. Thanks JDMWong!

Rampage is back!

Last night’s UFC Ultimate 2008 was the biggest fight card of the year with Frank Mir vs. Antonio “Minatauro” Nogueira, Rashad “Suga” Evans vs. Light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin, and Wanderlei “the Axe Murderer” Silva vs. Quentin “Rampage” Jackson.

I was mostly excited to see Rampage vs Silva 3.  Silva had beaten Rampage in their last 2 meetings in PRIDE and the wins were pretty brutal and in one of the previous contests Silva distributed 22 knees to Rampage before knocking him out!  I am a fan of both fighters, but Rampage is my boy so I was in his corner for this fight.

With less than 2 minutes left in the 2nd round…Rampage threw a left hook that knocked Silva the fuck out! Then proceeded to give him a couple extra punches to the dome for good measure.

Spoilers - Mir defeats Nogueira via ref stoppage due to punches (first in Nogueira’s career) and Evan stops Griffin to win the championship via TKO.

Congrats Rampage! See you in Vegas next month!

The Weekend Re-Cap

Friday night was pretty mellow. Headed out to San Diego for a X-mas party.

With about 4 hours of sleep got up and got ready for the first snowboarding trip of the season. California has recorded some record low’s lately and the snow keeps on coming! Headed out to Mt. High for some good times with my buddy Aaron. The conditions were great with new packed and groomed snow. It was crowded, but didn’t seem that bad. Tried out my new Burton gear and love it. I messed around with my binding adjustments all day with the new ICS system and still haven’t found the “perfect” set-up, but will have fun trying. Can’t wait to head up again this week!

Got home tired and a little sore and watched “Anchorman” for the hundreth time…cause that’s how I roll. Then headed out to Sutra for the Social Group Holiday party and also to celebrate Team Fred’s b-day. Some of the usual suspects came out to play and it was great seeing everyone.

Eddie (Mackin), Jerry (Pac Rim), me, Steph (Papadakis / Rockstar Racing), and Jonny Wong (Super Street)! Not pictured: Fred was probably either smoking or taking another shot.

Saw this on the way out…that’s the toughest XB I’ve ever seen.

After another 4 hours of sleep got up and got ready to go to Knott’s Merry Farm. This weekend was the annual Toys for Tots event and they gave out free admission when you bring a toy. I haven’t been to Knott’s in years and D and I decided to bring her nieces and nephews. When we got there it was PACKED! The line to receive a ticket for admission literally wrapped halfway around the entire park! The wait had to be at least 2-3 hours! We didn’t want to dissapoint the kids, so the decision was made to just purchase tickets. But I still wanted to donate the toys I bought, since I have no need for a couple dolls, toy trucks, and a spy kit (well the spy kit was cool). Walked up to the front told the army/navy/marine guy (not sure what service he was in) that I just wanted to donate the toys and will purchase tix and homeboy hooked me up with the tickets anyway without waiting in line. Good looking out! I must have good karma or something.

this was the middle of the line…

Short summary of day. Kids had a great time! I had a great work-out carrying one kid after another. Waited in long lines for both food and rides. Boomerang broke while in line to ride it. Log Ride is still a classic.

Lots of people

someone’s hungry

the brats kids

Log Ride (I’m only making that face cause my hair was getting messed up)

Overall great day and awesome ending to an amazing weekend plus the Chargers won and still have a chance to make the Playoffs - more on that later (crossing fingers). Hanging out with kids can be exhausting, but so fulfilling at the same time. They were so stoked on everything. I wish things could be that simple again.

Another Red Bull Drifting World Championship Video

Clash Production sent me this video from the Red Bull Drifting World Championship.  If you missed the Red Bull Drifting World Championship episode on SPEED yesterday this should hold you over until the re-air…plus you can’t go wrong with music by JUSTICE.

Tis the Season…

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than 15 seconds to go to their site and click on the purple box ‘fund food for animals’ for free. This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

The Bailout Ad…

I’m sure many of  you have seen this ad parody before, but it’s pretty dead on.  Everyone is being effected from this economic crisis not just the automotive industry and this is on a global level.  Close friends have been laid off from their jobs and it’s sad to see, especially at this time of the year.  I appreciate the companies that are being pro-active in not cutting costs by simply doing lay-offs, but rather finding alternative answers such as: No holiday bonuses, employees must use their vacation time, closing down the company for a few extra days -  (Oakley alone saves about a $1M by shutting down for a couple days extra in operating costs alone), and no extravagant holiday party…may suck for some, but may also help others save their jobs.

Motorsports across the board is hurting.  Subaru and Suzuki pulled out recently from World Rally Championship, which is crazy as Subaru has the nickname of the “Ferrari of the WRC!” Honda has pulled out of F1 and has cancelled their plans to produce the new NSX. And Audi has pulled out of the ALMS.

At least F1 is working on major changes that will save the teams money so they are able to compete in the coming seasons.  Read the changes HERE

I’m not sure what the “right” solution would be for these problems, but awareness should be part of the answer.

Check out this music video to set the mood

NERD - Sooner or Later Video w/ cameo by Rob Dyrdek

Red Bull Drifting World Championship to Air this Sunday on SPEED

Red Bull Drifting World Championship Episode to Air this Sunday on SPEED

Long Beach, Calif. – December 17, 2008 – The highly anticipated Red Bull Drifting World Championship program will air this Sunday, December 21 on SPEED at 1 PM (PST). The 1 hour episode will feature all of the highlights of the largest drifting event in history that took place on November 15-16 at the Port of Long Beach.

Relive the competition as 17 past and present drifting champions from the top drifting organizations in the world were brought together by Formula DRIFT for the inaugural Red Bull Drifting World Championship. Watch as the competitors slide sideways at speeds over 100 mph and within inches of the wall to battle for the largest prize purse in drifting history and the title of Drifting World Champion.

State of the art technology was used to capture each intense round of competition to take drift programming to the next level. The Red Bull Drifting World Championship program was shot in HiDef and is the first drifting show to incorporate the use of 16 mm video to vividly capture each dramatic moment of the event. The use of an “Ultimate Arm,” often used in Hollywood for specialized vehicle photography, was utilized for a dramatic opening sequence while aerial helicopter footage will showcase the unique venue and spectacular head-to-head action.

“With this level of technology and resources used for this event we were able to capture, cut, edit and deliver the single greatest drifting program ever,” said Ryan Sage, vice president of marketing and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “This is one episode of drift programming that fans will not want to miss.”

For more information visit: www.formuladrift.com.

Random Rainy Day

This past weekend was filled with Christmas shopping, holiday parties, and some sports.

Saturday headed to the Honda Center for the John Wooden Classic. Stan from Toyo sent me a few tickets and said there would be some free food and drinks. Naturally, I scheduled this in between all the Christmas shopping as I never turn down free food or drinks. I made it for the 2nd game UCLA vs. DePaul. It was a blow-out! 72 to 54 in favor of the Bruins (who I would like to mention have some cute cheerleaders.)

I was super disappointed in the Ultimate Fighter Finale with both my picks Vinny and Phillipe losing their matches. And actually Junie Browning looked very impressive with his win. I still think that Phillipe Nover will bounce back and have a great career in the UFC…just needs to work out his wrestling and take down defense and maybe also learn to adjust his game during a match. His entrance song showed his Filipino pride and also rocked the crowd…

Children of the Sun - Deep Foundation

More shopping Sunday…and ending with the ID Agency Holiday Party. We invited a few friends, family members, and clients to come out and chill with us. Rather than spend a ton on a dinner at a restaurant or poppin’ bottles a club, we wanted to have a more intimate and fun atmosphere so we decided to rent out the clubroom at the condo and have it there. Entertainment was provided by Pam’s intensive iPod list, the Sat. night football game, Laker game, pool, and of course Wii Sports! Food was catered by Bouchee’s Bistro with homemade chips and dip and amazing Sliders! If you’re in Downtown Long Beach be sure to check this spot out. We also had drinks pouring all night and it was overall a great time. Good to see everyone there and everyone that could not make it “Happy Holidays”.

I got my first X-mas present of the year from Vic (iD) and he was able to score me a limited edition “Righteous Kill” poster framed and autographed by Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol! Amazing present and this will look great in the loft or the office.

Woke-up this morning to the sounds of rain. Normally, I’m not big into rain, but that only means one thing in the winter - SNOW! I can’t wait to go boarding this season. Just picked up some new Burton gear and pulled my stuff out of storage…it’s on!

Rainy Day Weather in Long Beach

Every now and then a movie or TV show is filmed in Downtown LB

Let the games begin

Tanner Foust to Team with Carl Edwards for Team USA

Tanner Foust To Team With Carl Edwards For Team USA
At Race Of Champions In London

Foust Replaces Injured Travis Pastrana For This Weekend’s Race
At Wembley Stadium

December 10th, 2008, London, UK— Tanner Foust was picked today as a last minute alternate to Travis Pastrana for the all-star Race of Champions at Wembley Stadium in London, England this coming weekend. Pastrana was injured this week in California. The Race of Champions pits the world’s fastest drivers from the sport’s top race series including Formula One, World Rally Championship, and Touring Car Racing. Featured drivers this year include championship winners, Sebastien Loeb, Michael Schumacher and Mattias Ekstrom.

Rockstar Energy Drink driver Tanner Foust joins NASCAR phenom Carl Edwards to represent Team USA in the ROC Nations Cup. Tanner Foust is the 2008 and 2007 US Formula Drift champion and also a championship winning rally driver who took the gold medal in the 2007 X Games Rally and silver behind Pastrana in this year’s X Games. Foust is also an on-air TV host currently presenting Speed TV’s Supercars Exposed and one of the three hosts for the coming US version of BBC’s Top Gear.

Tanner is ecstatic about participating and said “The investigation will reveal I had nothing to with Travis’ injuries and of course I wish him a speedy recovery. More seriously though, I’m honored to have this opportunity to represent the USA on the world stage racing against guys who are heroes to me.”

The Race of Champions pits the best race drivers in the world against each other in head-to-head races on a tarmac course inside Wembley Stadium. The drivers race various identical cars including, for this year,KTM X-Bows, Ford Focus WRC cars and Abarth Assetto Corsas. The winner of the Race of Champions will be crowned Champion of Champions. The event is anticipated to have fifty thousand plus live spectators and millions of TV viewers worldwide. broadcast of the event. This is the twenty first year of the Race of Champions. ROC will air on Discovery HD early in the New Year.

More details on Race of Champions at www.raceofchampions.com

For more on Tanner Foust go to www.tannerfoust.com